This photo released by the police shows the 1919 painting 'Reading Girl in White and Yellow' by Henri Matisse. It is one of seven paintings stolen from the Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam. / AP

by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Romanian authorities have arrested three suspects in last year's multimillion euro (dollar) theft of paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others from a Netherlands art gallery, Dutch police said Tuesday, but the stolen works have not been recovered.

The seven pieces were swiped by thieves in October in a late night raid at the Kunsthal gallery in downtown Rotterdam. It was the biggest art theft in more than a decade in the Netherlands. The stolen works have an estimated value of tens of millions of dollars if they were sold at auction, but art experts said that would be impossible following the theft.

"Three people have been arrested, but unfortunately we have not got back the paintings," Rotterdam Police spokeswoman Yvette van den Heerik told The Associated Press.

Van den Heerik said the suspects' involvement in the heist was still being investigated. Dutch police did not immediately have more details of the arrests or the suspects.

Thieves are believed to have broken into the gallery through an emergency exit at the rear of the building and snatched the paintings. The following morning, only white spaces and broken hanging wires were left.

Police were on the scene within five minutes of an alarm being triggered, but the thieves were already gone by the time they arrived.